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The Lord Governor is an old man and a caricature of decrepitude, shrunken inside his great robes of state. His hands seem to shiver even in the heat, and his head is shiny bald aside from a few white whisps. His health is rapidly failing, and his mind is slipping into senility. He's quite deaf, and often confused.

When The Union won the First Gurkish War against the Gurkish some nine years before the series, the Guild of Spicers encouraged The Union to annex Dagoska into the realm. Sand dan Vurms was possibly the first and only Lord Governor. He would have been old even then, and very much the scrapings from the barrel, only interested in lining his own pockets. He allowed himself to be dominated by the Spicers' Magister, the Superior of the Inquisition, and his son. He's now quite elderly and incapable.

The Lord Governor is there in the audience chambre when the new Superior Glokta arrrives in the city, but he is totally confused by who he is, and can't remember that his predecessor is missing, presumed dead. Glokta presents his carte blanche from the Closed Council, effectively removing him from office.

When his son, Korsten dan Vurms, is arrested and executed for treason, his father is also detained and sent back to the Closed Council, along with Inquisitor Harker - neither man has committed any crime, but both are incompetent.